February monthly wrap-up: a spotlight on Valentine's Day

February is one of my favorite months of the year.  I know I'm probably in the minority when I say that.  It could have something to do with the fact that my birthday is in February, but I also love winter in general.  I know, I know, I'm in the minority again.  It works out okay, though, since DH and my daughters feel the same way!  The winter always goes much too quickly for us.  Unfortunately this winter has been a disappointment in the snow department, but we still kept our spirits up this month with lessons and activities for Valentine's Day.  With all the girls in this house, we're naturally drawn to the pretty reds, pinks, and white lacy decorations that go along with this holiday.

This year we participated in a Valentine card exchange with other homeschoolers on the TOS Crew.  Big Sis had fun sending and receiving the cards.  We used some store-bought and some were handmade by Big Sis.  This, of course, involved lots of stickers, glitter, glue, and paper doily hearts.

Making Valentine's Day cards counts as art, handwriting practice, life skills (properly addressing envelopes), and geography (we printed a U.S. map and marked all the states where we sent the cards).

Big Sis made this cardboard mail box to hold all of the cards she received.  I purchased the kit from the Dollar Tree, she did the folding and decorating.  It also serves as a cute Valentine decoration.  Dollar Tree is my favorite store for inexpensive seasonal items and school supplies.  Just for fun, I picked up a few heart-shaped helium balloons while I was there, too.

In addition to the Valentine exchange, we also learned about the origins of Valentine's Day.  We did a mini-lapbook on this, as well as a free Valentine math journal I downloaded from Currclick.  This involved some bar graphs and word problems using the Valentine theme.

Big Sis made a lovely Valentine-themed birthday card for me and wrote a poem to go along with it. It was all her own idea and I feel so blessed to have such a thoughtful daughter! She also made a paper doily heart crown and scepter so that I could be "Queen for the Day" on my birthday (the 12th). She said I didn't have to cook anything for the entire day (DH helped with this part) and that I could just relax. The fact that she wanted to do this for me is the best gift!

Among our regular studies this month, we did some special President's Day activities (mini-lapbook and copywork, also free from Currclick) and will be doing a special lesson for Leap Day tomorrow.  We had fun watching the night sky this month as we reviewed the Celestial Almanack.  Big Sis loves to point out Orion now!

She continues to read voraciously, often saying things like "Reading is my favorite thing to do!" or "I need some new books.  Can we go to the library again?" and even "Thanks for teaching me to read, Mama."  I'm so proud of her and things like that just make me smile.

I've been working on preschool activities with Lil Sis and Baby Girl, too, but I'm going to cover those in a separate post, hopefully coming soon!  Our days together are filled with fun and learning.  Although I'm often quite exhausted by bedtime, I wouldn't have it any other way!



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